I have yet to make a sour, although it is coming up very soon. I actually cultured something from the skin of a plum and have been feeding it small wort starters for a couple months now. I see yeast like activity for sure with some other interesting smells along with it. nothing bad so far and no mold (yea!)

but it's worth trying. what I did was make up three jars with some 1.030 wort and I put a grape from my backyard in one, left one outside overnight and put the plum skin in the third. the outside one grew mold almost immediately . The grape one was promising at first but then turned to nail polish remover The third one smelled kind of nice so I put it in the fridge and took it out again the next time I had a little wort left over to feed it. I was going to do a third sparge on my last batch and pitch it into that but I got lazy cause it was late. Next time!

Roeselare blend from wyeast. It makes a very nice sour and is great for a Flanders, much better than some other sour blends I've tried. It's not special, but if you want special I'd suggest adding some fruit you grow yourself or something along those lines.

Roeselare blend from wyeast. It makes a very nice sour and is great for a Flanders, much better than some other sour blends I've tried. It's not special, but if you want special I'd suggest adding some fruit you grow yourself or something along those lines.

+1 to Tom's plan. I would add that Orval makes a beer that contains a very aggressive bugand that you can get that character easily just by adding the dreggs from a couplebottles of Orval to your target souring beer.Edit: you could also visit some tastings at a local?? brewery where they may sell contentsfrom some sour barrels that you like and could try to grow up cultures that were in those barrels.

Had a beer from the Bruery, Oude Tart. it was like Jolly Pumkin's La Roja but with a heavy leather of brett. I'm limited in what I have done but they taste very close except for the brett. How is the roslaire profile? No brett leather in it?

I have a Flemish Red Ale fermenting. I have the base beer in the primary as I type. I'm planning to use the Wyeast Roselare blend in the secondary (glass). I would like to try some barrel aging, but I need a dedicated barrel for that. I might try adding a few oak cubes in the secondary to lend some oakiness.

wildknight

My first foray in sour beers involved just dumping dregs in a beer that I wanted to sour.

Given that you just used bottle dregs instead of a commercial pitch, I would say some good advice would be to have a lot of patience. Taste it at 3 months, then 6 months and be ready to give it all the time it needs.

What style you are planning to make is important. If you are looking for a Flanders, the Roselare Blend is great. If you are looking for a Lambic, then you need a lot of time. Using the Wyeast Lambic Blend will make a good beer but you need to let if ferment for a year or more. The reason is to develop the flavors and the Pedio and Brett don't work at the same time. Pedio takes off first and then Brett starts to develop and becomes the dominate bug later (<6 months). There are charts out there that show this relationship.

Even a Flanders beer will take at least 6 months to get the full flavor from the yeast.